That’s baby-making music
We don’t talk about jazz enough, Edmonton. And certainly not enough about jazz flute.*
Over at the Yardbird Suite tonight you can catch a session with The Jerrold Dubyk Quartet (featuring our old pal Jerrold Dubyk), and then there’s a jazz jam session.
Don’t think you’re a jazz fan? You never know, maybe you’ll end up liking what you hear.
*There may or may not be jazz flute at the Yardbird.
Open mics
I’ve been meaning to mention this as a possible event for some time.
This city is crawling with open mic nights. Which are a great way to show off that amazing voice of yours, and your new songs.
It’s also a good way to find that next big voice, or artist, that’s going to appear on the Edmonton scene. You know you want to be the person who saw them when.
YEG Live and Vue Weekly have listings where you’ll find open mics, open stages, and open jams.
Whether it’s a coffee house, pub, Morango’s Tek Cafes (we’re big fans), acoustic, blues, or jazz, there’s an open mic night for you. The bonus advantage to checking out open mic night is that you won’t be paying exorbitant ticket prices and still might hear some fantastic music.
New Year Events
If you can get out of bed this weekend, there are things to do. Even on New Year’s Day itself. (For New Year’s Eve see our previous post.)
Whyte Avenue’s fun, local coffee shop, Luzzara, has a New Year’s Day party (12-3pm).
As with every January 1, there’s a New Year’s Day levee at Government House. Meet the new Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta!
If you’re looking for a little music, try the Salute to Vienna at the Winspear Centre.
The Oilers are home on New Year’s Day night (hosting the Flames, no less), while the Oil Kings play Sunday afternoon.
Also Saturday night, Wunderbar’s got Energetic Action and Jazz (the band, not the genre of music).
*****
We gave Gregg Beever the holidays off. I hope he’s enjoying our generous holiday bonus.* So, here’s what I could find for movies that open this weekend.
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis, Cami Delavigne
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Michelle William
This is a crazy movie where Gosling and Williams play a couple, over decades. The movie jumps around between different points in their lives. Weird stuff.
Director and writer: Mike Leigh
Stars: Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville
Another couples movie. What’s up with that for the holidays?
After the holidays, when we’re all back to working five day weeks, there are more movies coming out. Some of them even look decent. (more…)
What to do, what to do…
After what felt like an exceptionally busy weekend, seven days ago, this weekend appears a little tamer.
There's going to be so much art here.
But there’s still plenty of good stuff around. And don’t you even think this signals a slowdown. The Capital Ex, Indy, Heritage Days, Taste of Edmonton, Fringe run is going to test your festival abilities.
As Sally brought to our attention earlier today, ArtWalk takes over Whyte Avenue this weekend. And a little rain isn’t going to stop the art.
Rain also hasn’t stopped the Street Performers Festival, wrapping up this weekend.
Angela reminded us that FAVA is partying today.
In music…Lily Fawn and her Lullaby band are at at The ARTery.
SOS Fest participants Wool on Wolves are playing Brixx, Saturday night. Jazz is at Wunderbar. It’ll be like you didn’t even miss them last weekend.
Blue Oyster Cult‘s at the Century Casino, Saturday night. Peter Frampton is tenting it up at River Cree.
The Pawn Shop is holding an undiscovered singing competition. Don’t forget about the Party Tent. (How could you though?) And Edmonton has a new blues bar. Rusty Reed’s opens with Big Dave McLean.
Gregg will probably be seeing Inception this weekend. It’s one of this month’s more anticipated films.
In sports…the Capitals play ball. (That means fireworks Friday night.)
